Ireland

For my graduation present I gave myself a trip to Ireland. Why Ireland? Why not? I've never been off the North American Continent and thought that it's about time that I had. And what better place to visit than Ireland?

Going to give you an overview of our Ireland holiday in this post then for those who care or just for my own entertainment I'll blog a few posts with more detail.



This is my google map of our itinerary, we stuck to it for the most part. The problem is that we didn't have google on the road and I didn't get around to print the maps so we looked at it in the morning when we could and did the best we could to remember where we wanted to go. A great help was that we used an Irish travel agency - Exploring Ireland. The main reason we went with a travel agency is that we did not have the time to research where we wanted to visit and to find hotels and Bed & Breakfasts. We gave Explore Ireland an idea of what we wanted to see and do while we were there and how long we were going to be there and they found our rooms, a car and gave us a suggested itinerary. We were thrilled with Exploring Ireland - all of the hotels and B&Bs they sent us to were great, we didn't have a problem with any of them or the car rental. The best part was that we paid Exploring Ireland and they gave us vouchers, so we didn't have to worry about paying each hotel/B&B some of which wanted cash, so we didn't want to carry around extra cash.


We spent the first 5 days in Dublin. The first night we spent at the Fitzpatrick Castle in Dalkey, which I think they built the castle with the idea of turning it into a hotel the minute it was done. It didn't seem like much of a castle. This was about a half hour south of Dublin and to get there we took the crazy taxi, thought for sure we were going to die! The first day is a blur - seemed like two minutes after the sun set it was rising again and I cannot sleep on planes.

I love Dublin! It felt like an American city. I compare it to Washington DC because both cities are the capitals with government buildings and memorials and both are low rise, no tall buildings but still very densely populated. There is so much to see and do in Dublin that we should have spent more time there. One interesting thing is that the whole country shuts down at 6pm except pubs. There was nothing to do after 6pm, even some of the parks shut down, except go to pubs and since we don't do much of that we just roomed around the streets.



After Dublin we got a rental car with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car and the driving on the wrong side of the road and no GPS. The first day of driving was kinda nerve racking- everyone drives 50-60mph on skinny winding roads and trying to remember to stay on the left side. Their sign system is difficult to figure out (when there are signs) and it takes a bit to get use to all the round-a-bouts. But after two days of driving it got kinda fun and I actually miss the round-a-bouts, much more efficient. They are in the process of building a freeway system, some of which has round-a-bouts, think about that, driving on I-15 and coming to a round-a-bout to get onto I-80. The freeways we did drive on were very new and most of the time we were the only ones on it.

The greatest thing we did besides the Hop on Hop off bus to tour Dublin, that gave us three days of using their tour buses, any city bus and the airport bus (that we used to get our rental car) was purchasing the Heritage card. Everything we went to cost money, 1 euro to 15 euro each, that adds up and makes the decision of what we wanted to visit. The Heritage card gave us access to all nationally owned heritage sites. We more than used what the card cost us and went to many sites that we wouldn't have gone to with out the card. We ended up focusing our site seeing on what sites were listed in the heritage book which we should have done in the first place.


We loved Ireland. Around every corner was another breath taking view. We have hundreds of pictures of scenery most of which T took while driving past. We would have needed another two weeks at the least to stop at every picturesque opportunity. T's favorite was the Muckross House and the Ring of Kerry. I would have to say my favorite was Dublin and the history of the whole country.

Master of the Universe!

I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL! I think that I have dragged it out long enough. I am ready to move on with my life, ready for the next chapter. Not that I have really been waiting to be done with school to move on, but have with some things.

For those who don't know or don't remember I have spent the last three years working towards a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Utah. The MPP program at the UofU was challenging and rewarding and definitely pushed me to work hard and find hidden abilities. I will miss the class discussions, friends and meeting new friends but I will never miss writing research papers. So yea - I'm down with MPP.

Palace Beautiful

Palace Beautiful is a beautifully written book. I'm not just saying that because the author lives in my ward (thats why I read it) but because it is. Actually the ONLY reason I read this book is because the author lives in my ward. This is not my genre, I would have never in a million years picked this book up. If you go to my goodreads and check out my book list, this genre of teenage girl books is not there.

With that said, I ended up enjoying Palace Beautiful. It took me about 50 pages or so to get past the teenage girl part and into the book but after I let my prejudice go, I couldn't put it down. I loved the story and the way it was written. The book is about two sisters who move to the Avenues in Salt Lake City and find a journal in the attic of their new house. With a new friend the sisters read the journal of a 13 year old girl from 1918 during the Influenza and go though their own story of being 13 in 1985. While I enjoyed the main story, I LOVED the journal story!! The girls read the journal in sections, making you wait in anticipation for the next time they're going to read the journal. I have learned a lesson that I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Just because it's a book for teenage girls doesn't mean that I won't like it. I hate to admit this but Palace Beautiful made me cry a little. The story has a great life lesson for everyone every age and while I highly recommend this to all teenage girls I would also recommend it for all.

Who knows, with my new lesson in life I might even read the Twilight series.

Doing Ok.....well as good as can be expected

We are still around and doing as good as a family with three kids, both parents going to school, one working full time the other teaching dance at one dance studio and running her own dance studio, all of our church callings and community work can be doing.

On a good note, my Master's project is looking something like a project and is no longer just some concept. The draft is due this week and the final is due the 22nd and hopefully thats it! Right now everything is based on me finishing school, well it's been that way for a while. Going to build a chicken coop - when Im done, going to go hiking with the kids - when I'm done, going to work on the basement - when I'm done, going to work in the yard - when I'm done, going to work on genealogy - when I'm done. Are you seeing a pattern?

What else .... we're going to Ireland for my graduation present. No particular reason, we have a list of places we want to go, a long list and we felt Ireland is the place. I am part Irish, my mom's father is a Conlin, who's grandparents came out of Ireland after joining the church.

We are having our 4th child. Yes, we are having our fourth and final child in October. You have no idea how glad I am to be done with infants! Really, I've been changing diapers for six years now and have at least three-four more years to go. T is kinda sad, well not now that she's pregnant but she will be later.

And that is what we have going on. You might not here much from us for a while but hopefully things will get back to normal - whatever that is and I'll blog on a more regular basis.

Wednesday Tunes

Ok Go - This Too Shall Pass

Never Ending

I want you all to feel sorry for me, I've been sick since before Christmas and it just won't go away. I'm done with it. It hasn't been bad enough to keep me in bed all day or stop me from going to work, it's just been lingering and bothersome. Until this past week, it hit me and knocked me out. Really, I didn't tell you that to feel sorry for me, but rather to explain my lack of blogging, I just haven't felt like it. That and I really don't have much to blog about, well I do but nothing special.

I will share with you all our school for this semester. T has some pretty exciting classes and Im sure that you're all are jealous. This semester T has History of Math and Calculas II. She has to write a paper for her History class, it's kinda funny, math people don't like to write and she just complains that the reason she likes math is because she doesn't have to write papers.

This semester, my last semester ever of school!! I have two courses, I'm taking Econometrics which is actually just half of the semester and I'll be done with that on March 1st!! Then I have my Graduate Projects class, were we just talk about our masters project, where we are at and how things are coming along.

Trying to find where I can stream live olympic coverage but haven't had any luck. If you have been streaming the olympics live online let me know where. No not NBC.

Monday Movies

I'm going to try something and see if I like it or not. We usually watch a movie or two over the weekends, mostly from redbox and I enjoy spending Monday's talking to friends about the movies we've watched as well as the movies they've watched. I'm not much of movie critic, I have no "in's" and I'm far from any movie expert, I can't tell you who directed what movies or name some unknown actor. I just want to share with my readers what I share with my friends, what I thought about the movies I watched over the weekend.

This past weekend we watched "Bright Star" and "Inglorious Bastards"

"Bright Star"


Bright Star is about the poet John Keats and his relationship with Fanny Brawne. I don't know much about poetry, not a big fan, so I had no idea that Keats was actually a very influential romantic poet and this movie was based on a true story. If you don't know about Keats and want to see this movie, watch the movie before you read about who Keats was or it will ruin the movie for you, well, kind of.

The movie was pretty slow, but other then that I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a great movie. I would recommend this movie, especially over V-day if your with someone special. It is a great love story - kinda. I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Here is the poem the movie was named after and that Keats wrote for Fanny.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.



Inglourious Bastards



This movie was 100% about Quinten Tarantino and him showing everyone what a great and talented writer/director he is. That said this movie was horrible, mainly for that reason. I thought Tarantino tired so hard to be Tarantino that this movie blows. I was absolutely bored with it half way through. This movie is based on what Tarantino wished would have happened to the Germans and Hitler during WWII and while we all dream about such things doesn't mean they should be made into movies. Brad Pitt is one of my favorite actors but he kinda annoyed me during this movie, I thought he ripped his accent off from George Clooney in "O' Brother, Where Art Thou?" But he did save this awful movie, him and the detective Nazi, Col. Hans Landa played by Christopher Waltz. While Hans was a Nazi and we were suppose to hate him, I thought he was a great character and while it was hard to like him, I did.

Like other Tarantino movies, this one is bloody and gory, that's how he roles. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, not because of the blood and violence but because it's not a good movie.

Favorite Super Bowl Branding

The Super Bowl was the second NFL game I watched all season, the first being the Vikings losing to the Saints, dang Farve. I really didn't have a preference on who won the Super Bowl other than I wanted to see Austin Collie receive a touchdown pass. That didn't happen so here are my two favorite Super Bowl commercials.

Wednesday Tunes

This video makes me smile - not only do I love this song but the video is great!

Vampire Weekend - "Cousins"

Have I done any good

Funny, this is pretty much my talk was about last Sunday. Most of my talk was taken right from Pres. Monson's talk though, he can just say it so much better than I could.

Boys Adrift

With Cash money the way he is, all crazy and out of control, I've decided to turn to books about raising boys for help. Cash really isn't that bad, he is crazy but overall he is a good kid, I just want to raise him the best way that we can and we do have two boys so hoping that there is some crossover in raising them. Cash doesn't take much for listening but I think that has as much to do with him being 3 as it does with being a boy. I think that the terrible twos are nothing compared to the horrible threes.



The first book I read was Boys Adrift by Dr. Sax. This book is great if you are white-middle to upper class and have a boy. If your boy does not fit in this category, the book will be still be of help but if your boy does fit in this category it's a great book. The author mentions more then once that this is not a book about girls or minorities. The middle to upper class part I figured out in the fact that most of his stories are about boys that have the option of private schools and in good neighborhoods with decent public schools. I do believe that Dr. Sax tried to offer advice to those who do not have the liberty of unlimited funds but he fall short with this advice.

The main focus of this book is to identify why boys are remaining boys and not growing up to be responsible men. The author uses a lot of generalizations and admits this. Not all men remain boys but an increasing percentage do. Why are boys content with living at home, not going to college or trade school, why don't they care about high school or much else?

I saw much of myself and friends in parts of the book which helped answer some questions and should be helpful for me. It did take me until I was 30 to get a four year degree! Dr. Sax comes to five factors that influence boys and he does this after a long career as a psychologist. The five factors from his website:

1 - Video Games. Studies suggest that some of the most popular video games are disengaging boys from real-world pursuits.

2 - Teaching Methods. Profound changes in the way children are educated have had the unintended consequence of turning many boys off school.

3 - Prescription Drugs. Overuse of medication for ADHD may be causing irreversible damage to the motivational centers in boys’ brains.

4 - Endocrine Disruptors. Environmental estrogens from plastic bottles and food sources may be lowering boys’ testosterone levels, making their bones more brittle and throwing their endocrine systems out of whack.

5 - Devaluation of Masculinity. Shifts in popular culture have transformed the role models of manhood. Forty years ago we had Father Knows Best; today we have The Simpsons.



Dr. Sax uses the movie Failure to Launch as an example of what he is talking about. Boys are smart and creative but have no initiative to do something with their lives. Boys are living at home with their parents far longer then they should with no goal of finishing school or saving for a house but just rather because mommy takes care of everything.

From me:
1 - Video Games. He says that it's not all games that are bad but violent games and spending too much time playing these games. When boys would rather play video games then real sports then there is a problem. Of course not all boys play video games and video games do not lead to problem boys in every case.

2 - Teaching Methods. Boys are not meant to sit still in class rooms learning to read when they are 5 or even 6. Kindergarten has changed and is now what 1st grade use to be. There is less time devoted to activities that requires exploring type learning and more time is devoted to sitting in desks learning. School today are more focused on desk learning and much less on experience learning. Most boys do much better with experience learning. They could care less to read or hear about how a tadpole transforms into a frog unless they have seen and chased tadpoles and frogs in a pond.

3 - Prescription Drugs. ADHD is a real problem but most boys who are diagnosed are miss diagnosed and most boys who do have ADHD could be helped with drugs that have fewer long term side effects.

4 - Endocrine Disruptors. Im going to try and put together a post to talk more on this.

5 - Devaluation of Masculinity. American society does not have any traditions that introduce boys into manhood. Most societies have some type of ritual where the boy can show that he is ready to become or has become a man. Boys do not have role models on how to act like a man. Again these are generalizations like everything else in the book. This is where I feel that LDS boys/men have an advantage, the priesthood teaches many young men how to become and act like men (whether they do or not is a different story) and sending boys on two year missions could be a ritual of when a boy becomes a man (again, whether they do or not is a different story).

Overall I thought that this was a great book and gave me many ideas on how I can better raise my boys. I would suggest this book to anyone who is raising boys at any age. My sister is reading my copy now and then T will is going to read it, after that any of you are welcome to borrow Boy Adrift.

2010

I've never really been one for new years resolutions or even setting goals. I usually enjoy living one day at a time and taking everything in stride. The things I have accomplished I've never written them down as goals or something to be achieved, I just did them. My issue with setting new years resolutions is why do you have to wait until new years day? Or any day for that matter to set resolutions? If you want to change or do something then don't wait.

My problem with goals is many, I'm lazy for starters and if I actually write down a goal that means I would have to do something to achieve it. To where getting a degree was never a "goal" meant if I didn't get a degree I didn't fail at achieving my goal.

Going against everything I know to be true I'm going to make some goals for this year. It's a first and probably a last - we'll see how I do.

- Exercise

- This one I will be forced into- I have signed up for RAGNAR which is a race from Logan to Park City. Luckily it is a 12 person rely race, so I only run three legs at 4-10 mile a leg. More info can be found here

- Get OUT

- I NEED to get out more - by that I mean I need to hike, camp, fish, backpack, snowshoe, ski and all that. The eight+ years I've been married I think I have only had a fishing licence 2ice and not once since we've had kids. I need to hike way more whether it's with friends, the kids, the wife or solo. I have never been snowshoeing but is something I really want to try and hopefully will before spring.

-Watch less teevee

- I don't really watch much teevee to begin with, mostly just to fill the room with noise and to distract my brain to think about nothing. I really hate teevee and think it's generally bad for me and my kids. By teevee I just mean in general and does not extend to movies or other shows on dvd without commercials. Going to get rid of cable, will be easier for me then the wife. There is little time as it is.

- Read more

- I have a stack of books that I have started reading and five other stacks that I want to read.

-Blog

- I kinda already do this but I would like to have better written blogs. I've decided that even though I can't write I'm going to randomly review a variety of things. Just about anything and everything I do, read, buy and or use and just about anything else. This way if you are thinking of buying or using or reading something, maybe I'll review it and you can see if it's worth your time and money

-School

-Last but not least - finish school by receiving my Master of Public Policy

Well, there you go, my 2010 goals. Now TAKE STATE!!!